Contemporary Masters at Salt Lake Art Center

Friday June 18 - Thursday Sept. 16

At the top of the long list of rules for visiting almost any museum is keeping your filthy hands off the priceless art. Although a necessary requirement, the distance between art and the viewer can create a disconnect. The Salt Lake Art Center and the 337 Project have decided to join forces and blow that time-honored regulation out of the water hazard.

Contemporary Masters is a new exhibit opening this weekend in the Main Gallery of the Salt Lake Art Center. The title may point to a potentially stuffy exhibit of mainstream art-gallery fare, until you properly understand just what you are in for—a fully playable, 18-hole, putt-putt golf course.

How, you ask, does such a leisure (not to mention kitschy) activity as miniature golf count as art? In this case, each hole was specifically commissioned by the curators, and, in turn, crafted and designed by more than 23 local and national artists—including John Bell (pictured), Tessa Lindsey & Clint Call, Peter Everett, Erin & Nick Potter, Jennifer Joseph, John Preus & Sarah Black, Christopher Wawrinofsky, Stephanie Leitch and Trent Call.

For Adam Price, executive director of the Salt Lake Art Center and founder of 337, Contemporary Masters presents a unique opportunity for audiences to get in touch—literally—with the contemporary art scene. “This exhibition offers visitors, in a good-humored way, a chance to explore their world through contemporary art, and to decide for themselves whether they want to become fans.”